Why Do People Shop at a Local Butcher?

There’s no single reason people walk through our door. After more than a decade, we’ve gotten to know the food lovers, home cooks, health-conscious shoppers, ethical omnivores and community supporters who shop at Homestead Meats.

Recently, we have been seeing some new faces at Homestead Meats.

Some of these customers have told us they are paying more attention to where their meat comes from. News about increased beef imports, combined with a recent recall of nearly 30,000 pounds of Argentine beef that entered the United States without required reinspection, has put meat sourcing on their radars.

Homestead Meats happens to sit just a block away from two large supermarket chains. People have plenty of choices about where to buy their meat. But now, news items like these are bringing some shoppers to a local butcher for the first time.

Of course, concerns about meat sourcing are just one reason people walk through our door. After over a decade of talking with customers across the counter, I’ve learned a lot about why they shop here. Most have more than one reason, and those reasons often change over time.

The health-conscious shopper

For some customers, knowing what they’re putting in their body comes first. They want to know what the livestock was fed. They ask about hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and genetically modified feed. They may also seek out foods they consider especially nutrient-dense, including organ meats, bone marrow, and bone broth, as well as convenient sources of protein such as beef jerky. We even have customers who tell us they are sensitive to histamines and tolerate our meat better than meat they have purchased elsewhere.

For these shoppers, transparency matters almost as much as the product itself. They don’t trust a label telling them that something is "natural" or "healthy." Instead, they want to understand where their food came from and make their own decision.

Some of the customers responding to recent news about imported beef fit into this group. Their immediate concern may be food safety, but the underlying question is really, "How much do I know about the meat I am feeding myself and my family?" Because we have direct relationships with our farmers, we are happy to answer their questions.

The food lover

Other customers have a much simpler motivation: They want really good food. These are the folks who always give excellent restaurant recommendations. They notice the difference between an average steak and a great one. They're intrigued by some of our offbeat products and culinary experiments. They may not initially come into the shop because they are thinking about agricultural practices or local economies, but those things connect to quality. Breed, feed, farming practices, freshness and processing can all affect taste.

One of the more interesting variations on this customer is the parent of a very discerning child. Some children are remarkably sensitive to differences in meat, especially processed meats. For example, a child who routinely rejects sliced ham or turkey from a supermarket may happily eat the same type of meat from a small butcher shop. We wrote about this phenomenon in “Kids Always Know.”

At the other end of the age spectrum are some of our older customers who grew up when meat was produced very differently than it is today. Some even grew up on farms or ranches themselves. They will sometimes tell us that our beef tastes like the beef they remember eating as children.

The home cook

There's plenty of overlap between food lovers and serious home cooks, but home cooks often want something else from a butcher: knowledge and flexibility.

They may walk in with a recipe that calls for an unusual cut they can’t find at the supermarket, like beef cheeks or lamb neck. They may know exactly how thick they want a steak or pork chop.

Sometimes, they're planning to host a gathering and want to talk through the menu with us.

This is one of the advantages of shopping at a butcher shop rather than simply selecting something from a refrigerated case. A butcher can often custom-tailor a cut to exact specifications, suggest an alternative, or source an uncommon ingredient.

And because the people behind the counter at Homestead are cooks themselves, the conversation often continues after the selection has been made. How are you planning to cook it? Should you sear it first? Braise it? Grill it? For people who love to cook, talking through the possibilities can be part of the pleasure of making dinner.

A taste of home

We also have quite a few customers who grew up in other countries where shopping for food at small, specialized shops is common. Others have spent enough time living or traveling abroad that they became accustomed to different ways of buying and preparing meat.

These customers often recognize specialty sausages and other products that can be hard to find in an American supermarket. Merguez, boerewors, picanha or boudin blanc may be foods they grew up with. They also sometimes come in looking for a particular cut prepared the way they know it from home.

I like to joke that I speak at least five meat languages. Different countries have their own traditions for breaking down an animal and naming the cuts, and we can often butcher meat in styles that aren't commonly found in the United States. That comes in handy when someone walks through the door looking for something they haven't been able to find since they left home.

More on this: Shopping the French Way

A look at the French tradition of shopping for food one specialty shop at a time.

The ethical omnivore

Another group comes to Homestead because they have decided to eat meat, but they want to be thoughtful about how they do it.

We see a lot of former vegetarians. They may have started eating meat again for nutritional reasons, such as difficulty getting enough iron, or because they wanted to share meals with meat-eating family members. Others have always eaten meat but have become increasingly uncomfortable with industrial animal agriculture.

These customers care deeply about the conditions under which the livestock is raised.  How is the animal treated? Does it have room to move around and live comfortably? How does the farmer care for the land? What does the animal eat? How far does it travel?

As we discussed in our previous blog article, “The Ultimate Gift,” eating meat can involve accepting and appreciating that an animal died to nourish us. With this awareness, we want the animal to have lived the best life possible.

That makes relationships with farmers particularly important. "Local" alone does not guarantee good farming practices, just as "small" does not automatically mean humane. What matters is knowing the farms, understanding their practices and choosing producers whose farming practices we believe in.

The community supporter

Then there are customers whose motivation extends beyond the meat itself.  They deliberately seek out independent local businesses because they want more of their money to stay in the Evanston community. They also like knowing the people they do business with.

In a neighborhood butcher shop, customers and staff learn each other's names. Conversations continue from one visit to the next. People ask about children, jobs, vacations and aging parents. Customers regularly share their thoughts about what I wrote in that week's MeatMail. They’ll come in to buy a chicken and stay an extra 10 minutes catching up.

Increasingly, people are looking for “third spaces,” places outside of home and work where they can spend time with other people. We recently wrote about an impromptu cookout that turned into exactly that. Nobody planned to create a community event, but with a few treats and some conversation, a little party happened.

Different reasons but common ground

These categories are not mutually exclusive. The customer who first comes in because they are concerned about food safety may discover that the meat tastes better than what they were buying before. The serious cook may start asking questions about farming practices. Someone who initially wanted to support a local business may become fascinated with unfamiliar cuts. The former vegetarian may find that what keeps them coming back is the conversation.

Fortunately, there's no test for shopping at Homestead Meats and no philosophy you need to share. Maybe you were just passing by on Chicago Avenue, or a friend told you, “Hey, you should try that place!” Whatever brings you through the door, we're glad you came.

Homestead Meats is Evanston’s locally sourced butcher shop, handcrafting unique fresh meats, deli meats, sausages, and other charcuterie. All fresh meats and eggs are sourced from family-owned Midwestern farms that raise their livestock in open pastures, without hormones or GMO feed.